Monday, May 22, 2017

SriLankan Airlines will have the largest network in India for a foreign airline with the addition of three new routes in July as a part of its regional expansion plans, the national carrier’s head told the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Annual Summit that concluded in Negombo yesterday. “In India we have added on three more destinations, which (will) make SriLankan Airlines the largest foreign carrier to India. We’ve added on Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam and Coimbatore, which makes a total of 12 destinations that we operate to in India,” SriLankan Chairman Ajith Dias said.
He said that these routes will be added starting from July, with Hyderabad being the first, and that some of these flights would operate daily. SriLankan has currently switched its focus to service the Asian region, after cancelling most of its long haul flights except London, although Dias said that the route slots to Frankfurt and Paris are still reserved by SriLankan just in case the airline decides to return to those destinations in the near future. Along with the focus on neighbouring destinations, a re-fleeting exercise is also taking place, with older long-range wide-bodied aircraft being replaced and augmented by six new short-range narrow-bodied A320neo aircraft, two of which have already been delivered.
22/05/17 Daily Mirror